Reactions to Rouhani Speech Ripple Through Streets of Tehran
Iranians are watching their president in New York and looking for signs of change in relations with the United States.
TEHRAN — Tehran’s long evening rush hour is winding to a close. Mohammed, my taxi driver, makes his way briskly down Beheshti Street, named after the assassinated revolutionary cleric, in a rusty Peykan car that smells faintly of gasoline.
The plaintive tones of the evening’s news report buzz from his car radio. “President Hassan Rouhani will address the UN General Assembly at 11:30 p.m. Tehran time tonight,” announces the female presenter before a long news jingle, based on Jennifer Rush’s ’80s single ‘The Power of Love,’ plays out.
I was on the way to catch the speech at a friend’s house and I told Mohammed of the stories I had heard that a Rouhani and Obama meeting might take place before the Iranian president’s speech.
“Really?” he asked incredulously. “Then what have we been fighting for?”
